C/C++ Data Types

There are five data types for C: void, integer, float, double, and char.

Type	Description
void	associated with no data type
int	integer
float	floating-point number
double	double precision floating-point number
char	character

C++ defines two more: bool and wchar_t.

Type	Description
bool	Boolean value, true or false
wchar_t	wide character

Type Modifiers

Several of these types can be modified using signed, unsigned, short, and long. When one of these type modifiers is used by itself, a data type of int is assumed. A complete list of possible data types follows:

bool

char

unsigned char

signed char

int

unsigned int

signed int

short int

unsigned short int

signed short int

long int

signed long int

unsigned long int

float

double

long double

wchar_t

Type Sizes and Ranges

The size and range of any data type is compiler and architecture dependent. The "cfloat" (or "float.h") header file often defines minimum and maximum values for the various data types. You can use the sizeof operator to determine the size of any data type, in bytes. However, many architectures implement data types of a standard size. ints and floats are often 32-bit, chars 8-bit, and doubles are usually 64-bit. bools are often implemented as 8-bit data types.